Vader vs Khyron
by Stoff
Summary: Darth Vader fights a starfighter duel with Khyron from Robotech. Part of Stoff's Character Tournament


**Character Tournament**

**Darth Vader vs. Khyron the Backstabber**

by Stoff

Disclaimer: No character in this story is owned by me. This story is written for entertainment only

This story is written for Stoff's Character Tournament. For information on how you can participate, go to the forums under Misc./X-overs/Character Tournament

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Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, cruised the edge of the Mutara Nebula in his advanced TIE fighter prototype. Flying small craft had once been an activity which brought him great pleasure. Now, though, that section of his soul had been closed off permanently. Still, he retained some of his old skill, though he had little enough opportunity to use it.

At this moment he had a mission: Find and destroy another pilot; one who had come seemingly out of nowhere and began to cause trouble for the Imperial forces. No one knew who this pilot was, but he was a gnat to be swatted.

---

Khyron sat in the cramped cockpit of his Zentradi officer's battlepod. Through the viewscreen a scant meter in front of his face he watched the nebula. A lovely view, he thought.

Reaching into his armor, he pulled out an Invid flower of life. He looked at it, admiring its beauty for a few moments, then placed it in is mouth. Gently, he began to chew. The raw protoculture hit his bloodstream almost immediately, and he stiffened in his seat as it took hold of his mind. Slowly, he relaxed and smiled lazily, looking once again at the nebula. A lovely view indeed.

He knew that an assassin had been sent to kill him, and he knew that this assassin lay on the other side of the nebula. Unfortunately, whoever it was would have to be killed, but there was no rush. No reason he would have to subject himself to combat without the lift of a flower of life.

Now that his mind was in proper state, he began to study the tactical problem in front of him. Because of the nebula, he could not pick up the assassin's ship on his scanners. If he entered the nebula to attack his opponent, his viewscreen wouldn't function properly, leaving him at best handicapped, and at worst blind as a bat. Also, his targeting systems would malfunction, but he rarely trusted them anyway.

"Oh well," he said allowed. "Nothing comes to the warrior who isn't willing to die." He pushed his throttle forward, moving into the nebula, and in the general direction of his opponent. As soon as he entered the cloud of gas, his viewscreen became overcome with static. Mind still clouded by the flower, he laughed. "Whoever the assassin is, he will learn to fear the name Khyron!"

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Vader entered the nebula at full speed. His long range sensors reported a malfunction. The fighter's transparisteel viewport would have to serve for this fight. His targeting computer was also out, but Vader rarely needed to make use of that. The game of starfighter combat was one of maneuver, not one of computers. Lastly Vader noticed that his shields were now useless. Hopefully he would not have to make use of those.

The enemy fighter had not yet appeared on Vaders scanners, but reaching out with The Force, he detected the only being within tens of light-years: his prey. Vader read what little he could of his enemy's thoughts at this distance. Interesting. It appeared his enemy was under the influence of some type of spice. He also seemed to be getting steadily closer. This would be over soon.

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Sweat had beaded on Khyron's brow. The assassins were all around him! They were just afraid to show themselves. Studying his viewscreen, covered with interference, he suddenly saw something. A black form. He aimed his arm cannon and fired.

Almost as soon as he had fired, he noticed another form. He aimed and fired. They were everywhere! He kept firing, giving everything he had just to keep them away from him.

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Dead ahead of him, at a distance of about 50 kilometers, Vader saw weapons fire. What could his enemy be firing at? His craft must rely on sensors. Without any reliable targeting information, he must be shooting at anything which looked like a ship. Of course, the spice may also have been affecting his opponent.

Vader headed straight for his enemy and prepared to finish the intoxicated fool off. Suddenly a bolt of energy hit his unshielded hull, rocking his fighter violently, but not penetrating the armor. Vader readjusted his course so that he was still heading for his enemy. How had the criminal hit him with blind luck? Perhaps it was not just blind luck. Had he been seen?

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Khyron shook his head to clear it. What had he been doing? The only memory which returned to him was hitting an enemy craft scant seconds ago. Looking at his viewscreen, he saw it again, closing in on him. Turning his pod, he fired the main cannon on his back at the approaching fighter.

This time Vader was ready for the incoming fire, and jinked to the right, narrowly avoiding the energy beam. His enemy followed up with shots from arm cannons and small projectile weapons mounted on the nose of the craft.

Displaying the piloting skills for which he had once been renowned, the Dark Lord wove his way through the barrage of fire. The enemy craft was quite strange. It resembled an AT-ST walker with arms, and a slightly elongated fuselage. From this distance he could make out white, orange, and blue paint. How it was able to move through space, and why such a craft would be designed to move through space, was a mystery. Little did it matter. Soon it would be no more than space garbage.

Once within range, Vader zeroed in on the walker and depressed the thumb triggers on his yoke. The duel laser cannons fired, hitting the enemy craft smartly. Vader soared past his target triumphantly, but as he looked back, he saw that his enemy had not exploded as expected. Once at a safe distance, he circled around so that he could examine it through his front viewport.

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Khyron's battlepod shook as he took a hit. The assassin's lasers penetrated his craft's armor, frying a few unimportant systems in showers of sparks, but his pod was too tough to be destroyed by such weak weapons. He hoped that his enemy did not know this.

His battlepod slowly turned in the nebula, so that the enemy was again visible on his viewscreen. It was slowly drifting closer to him. "That's it, my friend," he whispered, despite the fact that it was impossible for his opponent to hear him. "Examine your vanquished foe."

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Vader cut power and coasted towards the strange craft, watching for any sign of life. He could sense that the enemy pilot was still alive, but the thoughts were not in a healthy condition. Whether this was due to spice, or near death, he could not determine.

Suddenly the enemy craft lunged at him with one of it arms. Too quick for Vader to dodge, the arm hit his starboard solar panel, shearing the top half of it off, and sending the fighter tumbling away.

Now for the first time his comlink crackled to life. His enemy was contacting him. "That's what comes from underestimating Khyron," he said, the gloating more than evident. "Now you die."

Although Vader did not see, Khyron aimed his right arm cannon at the spinning TIE. Acting on pure instinct, Vader slapped his throttle forward, and the fighter rocketed ahead on a spiral course, narrowly avoiding the beam which would have sealed his doom.

It took all of Vader's skill to keep his ship flying in a straight line. Meanwhile, this Khyron laughed at him over the comlink. "So, you have a bit more fight in you, eh? That much more enjoyable for me."

Vader mentally cursed himself. He _had _underestimated his opponent. He should have made certain his adversary was completely destroyed from a safe distance. It was a mistake he did not intend to repeat.

Still struggling with his damaged craft, Vader continued putting distance between himself and his enemy. Putting in a touch of rudder, he ducked into a ribbon of dense gas, hiding from Khyron's view.

Unfortunately his opponent's voice continued to find him. "Run and hidden, have you? Too bad. I was just beginning to enjoy your company."

Vader's greatest advantage had been when his enemy could not see him. As much as it turned his stomach to run, it was imperative that he regain that advantage. The amorphous ribbon of gas stretched in several random directions. Able to sense the phenomenon, as far as the general direction of his enemy, through The Force, he moved along the ribbon at a course perpendicular to his enemy's position from him.

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Beads of sweat began to reappear on Khyron's forehead. "Show yourself! You coward!" He yelled over the com net. Giving way to frustration, he fired all of his weapons into the nebula, hitting nothing. He pounded the controls and his failure, and continued to fire all around him.

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Vader's fighter slipped out of the denser gas, directly behind Khyron's battlepod. Feeling satisfaction at destroying a foe, Vader carefully aimed his cannons and prepared to seal this pilot's doom.

Suddenly, Khyron knew where the assassin was. He spun his battlepod on its vertical axis, but he was too late. Vader depressed his triggers for a second time, catching the pod dead center.

The first few bolts stripped away the pod's armor, but Vader kept the trigger depressed, and the following bolts bored through the holes already made and began to wreak havoc with the pod's internal systems. All of this happened in the blink of an eye, and Khyron's pod exploded, leaving no possibility of his survival.

"And that is what comes from opposing the Sith," Vader told the now empty space. Turning his fighter, he sped towards the edge of the nebula, and began to punch calculations into his nav computer for the return to Coruscant.


End file.
